Good Friday holiday in Kentucky challenged in federal appeals court

Some citizens in a Kentucky county aren’t happy that county offices are closed on Good Friday.

They have asked a federal appeals court to overturn a district court decision that said it was OK to close Kenton County courts and administrative offices that day.

In 1996 three Covington, Ky., citizens, represented by Scott Greenwood, a Cincinnati-based First Amendment attorney, sued Kenton County officials over the Good Friday closings. They argued that the county closure was done in observance of Christianity and thus violated the separation of church and state. The citizens also challenged the signs posted inside the courthouse — which declared the offices closed “for observance of Good Friday” and included a picture of a crucifix.

Early last year, U.S. District Judge William O. Bertelsman ordered county officials to remove the signs, saying they were perceived as “a government endorsement of the Christian religion.” Bertelsman, however, ruled that closure was permissible, primarily because the county had been closing its offices for years on that day and because officials had started referring to the day off as a “spring holiday.”

Bertelsman concluded that a “reasonable observer” could not construe the county closure of offices as an endorsement of Good Friday, a day on which many Christians fast and pray.

“The resolutions and orders have all been amended to merely state that the courthouse will close this year on a given date,” Bertelsman wrote. “The signs will also so state. In short, the officials have done almost everything they can to disclaim any intent to endorse religion. This court concludes that, from the perspective of the observer informed of all these facts, the courthouse closing does not appear to endorse the Christian religion.”

Before a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last week, Greenwood argued that calling the day off a spring holiday did not change the religious meaning of Good Friday. The 6th Circuit includes Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee.

Greenwood noted that the county’s original notice of the day included an acknowledgment of its religious significance. “The sign showed the purpose of the closing,” he said. “The county offices were closed in observance of an explicit religious holiday, which has no secular underpinnings.”

Attorneys for the county, however, argued that Good Friday does have a secular purpose. Rita Ferguson, Kenton County attorney, argued that the day was the start of a spring break that “everyone wants.”

In July a federal judge in the 7th U.S. Circuit, which includes Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin, ruled that an Indiana law granting state employees Good Friday off did not subvert the establishment clause, partly because the state had argued the day off was merely a spring break for its workers. That decision, however, conflicted with a 1995 7th Circuit Court of Appeals decision that invalidated Illinois’ recognition of a public school holiday for Good Friday. In that case Judge Richard Posner concluded that Good Friday, unlike Christmas and Thanksgiving, had not become secularized.

“Good Friday has accreted no secular rituals,” Posner wrote in Metzl v. Leininger. “That should come as no surprise. Good Friday commemorates the execution of the Christian Messiah. It is a day of solemn religious observance, and nothing else, for believing Christians, and no one else. Unitarians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, atheists — there is nothing in Good Friday for them, as there is in other holidays,” with Christian origins.

Greenwood argued before the 6th Circuit panel in Sahrbacker v. Middleton that Kenton County officials had intentionally drained Good Friday of its religious meaning.

“It is intellectually dishonest to suggest that the holiday is anything but religious,” Greenwood said. “The government has defended its closing practices by taking out all the religious meaning of Good Friday. The purpose of the closing laws is to funnel people into churches and honor Jesus and the effect of the closing is to send a message that non-Christians are not welcome.”

Greenwood said he hoped the panel would rule on the appeal before next year’s Good Friday, April 2.

More articles related to First Amendment News.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.

THE EXPERTS

The First Amendment Center is an educational organization and cannot provide legal advice.

Ken Paulson is president of the First Amendment Center and dean of the College of Mass Communication at Middle Tennessee State University. He is also the former editor-in-chief of USA Today.

Gene Policinski, chief operating officer of the Newseum Institute, also is senior vice president of the First Amendment Center, a center of the institute. He is a veteran journalist whose career has included work in newspapers, radio, television and online.

John Seigenthaler founded the Newseum Institute’s First Amendment Center in 1991 with the mission of creating national discussion, dialogue and debate about First Amendment rights and values.

About The First Amendment Center

We support the First Amendment and build understanding of its core freedoms through education, information and entertainment.

The center serves as a forum for the study and exploration of free-expression issues, including freedom of speech, of the press and of religion, and the rights to assemble and to petition the government.

Founded by John Seigenthaler, the First Amendment Center is an operating program of the Freedom Forum and is associated with the Newseum and the Diversity Institute. The center has offices in the John Seigenthaler Center at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., and at the Newseum in Washington, D.C.

The center’s website, www.firstamendmentcenter.org, is one of the most authoritative sources of news, information and commentary in the nation on First Amendment issues. It features daily updates on news about First Amendment-related developments, as well as detailed reports about U.S. Supreme Court cases involving the First Amendment, and commentary, analysis and special reports on free expression, press freedom and religious-liberty issues. Support the work of the First Amendment Center.

1 For All

1 for All is a national nonpartisan program designed to build understanding and support for First Amendment freedoms. 1 for All provides teaching materials to the nation’s schools, supports educational events on America’s campuses and reminds the public that the First Amendment serves everyone, regardless of faith, race, gender or political leanings. It is truly one amendment for all. Visit 1 for All at http://1forall.us/

Help tomorrow’s citizens find their voice: Teach the First Amendment

The most basic liberties guaranteed to Americans – embodied in the 45 words of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution – assure Americans a government that is responsible to its citizens and responsive to their wishes.

These 45 words are as alive and important today as they were more than 200 years ago. These liberties are neither liberal nor conservative, Democratic nor Republican – they are the basis for our representative democratic form of government.

We know from studies beginning in 1997 by the nonpartisan First Amendment Center, and from studies commissioned by the Knight Foundation and others, that few adult Americans or high school students can name the individual five freedoms that make up the First Amendment.

The lesson plans – drawn from materials prepared by the Newseum and the First Amendment Center – will draw young people into an exploration of how their freedoms began and how they operate in today’s world. Students will discuss just how far individual rights extend, examining rights in the school environment and public places. The lessons may be used in history and government, civics, language arts and journalism, art and debate classes. They may be used in sections or in their entirety. Many of these lesson plans indicate an overall goal, offer suggestions on how to teach the lesson and list additional resources and enrichment activities.

First Amendment Moot Court Competition

This site no longer is being updated … And the competition itself is moving to Washington, D.C., where the Newseum Institute’s First Amendment Center is co-sponsoring the “Seigenthaler-Sutherland Cup National First Amendment Moot Court Competition,” March 18-19, in partnership with the Columbus School of Law, of the Catholic University of America.

During the two-day competition in February, each team will participate in a minimum of four rounds, arguing a hypothetical based on a current First Amendment controversy before panels of accomplished jurists, legal scholars and attorneys.

FIRST AMENDMENT CENTER ARCHIVES

State of the First Amendment survey reports

The State of the First Amendment surveys, commissioned since 1997 by the First Amendment Center and Newseum, are a regular check on how Americans view their first freedoms of speech, press, assembly, religion and petition.

The periodic surveys examine public attitudes toward freedom of speech, press, religion and the rights of assembly and petition; and sample public opinion on contemporary issues involving those freedoms.
See the reports.